Best Consulting Internships

In order to compile the 2014 Vault Top Internships Rankings, Vault invited more than 500 organizations to participate in our 2013 Internship Survey. We gathered survey responses both from organizations that sponsor internships and from their interns. The internship sponsors provided Vault with descriptions of their programs, as well as details on the number of interns hired, duration of program, locations and departments in which interns are placed, and application requirements. We also asked current and former interns to comment on and rate their internship experiences on a variety of factors, including the application process, compensation and perks, quality of life, meaningfulness of assignments and training, and full-time employment prospects.

Only organizations that completed both surveys — the self-reported program description and the intern-provided reviews — were eligible for our 2014 Top Internship Rankings (all program descriptions are included in Vault’s Internship Database, as are all intern reviews).

This year, we heard from 7,700 interns who reviewed more than 100 different internship programs. Programs for which we received at least 10 reviews were considered for the 2014 Rankings. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest, respondents were asked to rate their internship experiences in five areas:

Career Development (training and mentoring, quality of assignments, real-life experience, networking opportunities)

Full-time Employment Prospects (opportunity to obtain a full-time job with this organization)

These ratings were averaged to determine an overall score for each program. Vault then compiled rankings of the top internship programs in the following seven areas:

The Best Overall Internships: Vault’s Best Overall Internships reflect the top 25 highest-rated internship programs across the survey pool.

The Best Banking & Finance Internships represent the highest-rated internships in banking and finance.

The Best Consulting Internships represent the highest-rated internships among consulting firms.

The Best Engineering Internships represent the programs that received the highest ratings from interns who are studying, or have earned a degree in, engineering.

The Best IT Internships represent the programs that received the highest ratings from interns who are studying, or have earned a degree in, information technology.

The Best Internships for MBA Candidates represent the programs that received the highest ratings from interns who are pursuing, or have earned, an MBA degree.

The Best Internships for Marketing & Communications Majors represent the programs that received the highest ratings from interns who are pursuing, or have earned, degrees in marketing or communications.